Nikolai Ryzhkov

Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov (28 September 1929-) was Chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers from 27 September 1985 to 14 January 1991, succeeding Nikolai Tikhonov and preceding Valentin Pavlov. Ryzhkov then became a Senator from Belgorod Oblast on 17 September 2003, serving as an independent politician.

Biography
Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov was born in Dzerzhynsk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union on 28 September 1929, and he graduated from the Ural Polytechnic Institute in 1959, three years after joining the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Ryzhkov worked as a welder and engineer before serving as  director of the Uralmash Production Amalgamation from 1970 to 1975. That year, he was transferred to Moscow, where he became First Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Heavy and Transport Machine Building. In 1981, he was elected to the CPSU Central Committee, and he was affiliated with Andrei Kirilenko's faction. Following Nikolai Tikhonov's resignation as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Ryzhkov was voted into office in his place. During his time in office, Ryzhkov supported Mikhail Gorbachev's 1980s reform of the Soviet economy. In December 1995, he was elected to the State Duma as an independent, but he resigned his seat in the Duma in 2003 to become a member of the Federation Council.